Rule One of Pruning: If it looks good when you're done, you did it the
right way. That said, a couple of notes, in no particular order...

The hornwort is not really a stem plant and should not be planted. It's
leaves can adapt to anchor but, more often, will simply rot. It's a
floating plant, although some people find creative things to do with it (I
once tried to weave it into a mesh onion bag and stretch it out as a
background - boy, did THAT look stupid).

The hygro -corymbosa? - should be easy enough to prune. I've found that
mine doesn't really branch at all until it's been pruned. It grows so fast
in my tank that I have to lop off and replant the top every month or two.

That's pretty much the same technique for all your stem plants. Prune back
the tips until they start looking ratty, then dig out the roots, plant the
tips, and start over again.

As far as the swords, you can remove outer leaves that are starting to look
shabby by cutting as close to the base as possible. If the sword's starting
to get too big and is crowding out the other plants, you can remove as many
of the outer leaves as necessary to tame it. If you need to, you can trim
all but an inch or two of the roots off and replant it - the plant will keep
it's leaves but will not produce any new ones while it's regrowing it's
roots.

1.5 wpg isn't much light for some of those plants but, if the tank looks
good, hey, who am I to complain. You probably want to limit fertilizing to
the absolute bare minimum your plants can use at that light level, though,
or you'll always have a battle with algae.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
I had Eloda, Bacopa, Vallis, borneo sword, some type of dwarf sword and
some
giant hygrophilia in my 20Gal tank along with two silk plants in the back
corners. (about 1.5 watts of light per gallon) but it was looking really
shabby, the plants didn't look too good, I was adding liquid fertiliser
once
a week and tablets every two weeks. then I started to get an increase in
algae. I got really fed up with the tank and have completely redesigned it
(it took me about three hours) I kept some of the good strands of eloda,
the
borneo swords and the dwarf swords, the giant hygro and a few vallis
strands
. I then bought a load more eloda, a load of what I believe is hornwort,
some hygro polysperma (not the giant sort and not difformis) and some more
bacopa, (my other bacopa had god roots but only about two leaves). since
buying that lot I have lost a load of the hygro and added a load back and
bought some cabomba. The hornwort I spent a week and a half planting it
only
to find it had come out the next day so I've gave up and left it floating.
I
have also cut back on the fertiliser. I will be getting some more plants
but
I have the bulk of what I want. I am now pleased with my tank, and my
algae
problem is on the mend!

My question is about pruning and the best way for each type of plant. this
is what I am doing at the moment.

The eloda: If it is uprooted or I can see the base is not looking too
good,
I trim about two inches off the base and replant the top, either throwing
the base away or leaving it floating. If the base is fine or I can't get
to
uproot it with out disturbing the rest I cut the top away then either
replant or if less than about two inches I leave it floating.

The Hygro polysperma: At the moment I just prune in my gourami tank, as
I've
not had any luck in my big tank. All I do here is snip a few inches off
the
top. no uprooting or anything.

Vallis: cut the larger leaves back, use to do it half way up the leaf but
now try to cut it off nearer the base.

That's it for pruning that's all I do, my questions - am I doing the
pruning
the correct way, or should I always uproot the plants?

secondly how do I trim such plants as the cabomba, can this be trimmed
from
the top or does it not take too kindly to this and should be uprooted.
Hornwort, again is this just like a typical stem plant?
I have never trimmed the giant hygro, (a couple of it's leaves have a bit
of
algae but nothing drastic) but it will need to be trimmed soon, how do I
do
this? I have read that if it reaches the top of the water it will shed
it's
leaves, and flower, while this would be good to see, it's taken me so long
to grow it I'm afraid of it losing its leaves.!
The bacopa again just a typical stem plant?
and what about the borneo swords?

Thanks for anyone taking the time to read and answer this

Stu